Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008jgra..11306210p&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 113, Issue A6, CiteID A06210
Physics
Plasma Physics
22
Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526), Space Plasma Physics: Mathematical And Numerical Techniques (0500, 3200)
Scientific paper
The process of collisionless magnetic reconnection in an ion-scale current sheet containing strong gradients in the density and magnetic field strength across the layer is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Such a current sheet configuration contains a strong normal polarization electric field on the high field/low density (magnetospheric) side of the layer. In initial-value simulations for such an asymmetric sheet, the reconnection rate and saturation level are found to be smaller by factors of 2-3 compared with a similar-scale symmetric current sheet. These rates are probably too small to explain observations at the dayside magnetopause. The addition of an external-driving electric field increases the reconnection rate substantially. This driven reconnection configuration is characterized by a nearly parallel inflow of electrons along the magnetosheath separatrices as the electrons attempt to flow from the high density side to the low density side of the layer, a strong outward flow of Poynting flux along the magnetospheric separatrices associated with the normal electric field and out-of-plane magnetic field, and a strong ion outflow jet. The outflow region on the magnetospheric side also exhibits a patchy parallel electric field structure and parallel electron velocity distributions with a counterstreaming feature. The addition of a moderate uniform magnetic guide field component (shear angle $\gtrsim$110°) has no appreciable effect on the reconnection rate but does produce a drift of the X line in the direction of the electron diamagnetic drift at a small fraction of the magnetosheath Alfvén speed.
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